Pages

Mar 12, 2011

The massive 8.9 magnitude earthquake that affected Japan on March 11, 2011 has caused tremendous damage to the country and this has resulted in untold loss of life. The earthquake triggered a massive tsunami along with additional aftershocks of at least 6.0 in magnitude, causing additional damage.

It's always tricky to figure out how to coordinate efforts and where to find information during these periods, something that the folks at Google have also found frustrating, hence the need for a Google solution.

Thus Google has put together a crisis response information page to help people in Japan find information about where to find help, get information on alerts and other warnings and relevant maps of the area.

One of the more important tools they've quickly put together is the People Finder, similar to what they did after the Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand. The tool helps people either report updates on people that they know of or help people search these reports for updates on their loved ones.

As of the time of this posting, there are almost 65,000 entries already in the database and this continues to grow. I'm hopeful this will help more and more people find their loved ones in the wake of this tragedy.

I remain confident that Japan will rise from this tragedy stronger than before. Already their infrastructure has proven the resiliency and the brilliance of their engineering and disaster preparations has saved countless lives. And the strength of the Japanese people is what truly keeps them thriving despite all that has happened.

Regardless, we hope for the best for all those who were affected by this tragedy.